KNM: Volume 12 Chapter 6

KNM: Volume 12 Chapter 6

Companion’s Reunion

“How many waves of attack was that? Damn Dragon Emperor, attacking us by throwing numbers against us just because he has so many Knights.”

Kaiser yelled loudly, realizing he was very hoarse. He shook his head and gulped down yet another cup of coffee. His eyes had never left the monitor screen. The Dragon Emperor’s tactics in the past few days had been quite direct, obviously trying to tire them out.

The three thousand Knights were divided into three shifts, taking turns to attack, which means there were a thousand Knights attacking the base at all times! They needed basically no strategy; the Knights were all at least Blue ranked, and as Dragon Knights, they were all attacking out of the sky. The base had been withholding such immense attack.

Daylight looked at Kaiser worriedly; the latter had not stepped out of the command room for the past few days. If this continued, he would die from exhaustion. Daylight advised, “Kaiser, why don’t you go rest for a bit, I’ll take care of it in the mean time.”

“No. You don’t know anything about Magic, and the powerful Magician next to the Dragon Emperor has not appeared. If they have any sort of sinister plan, you couldn’t identify it.” Kaiser shook his head. If that weren’t the case, he wouldn’t have refused to leave.

Daylight looked at the screen and saw a sea of Knights attacking, and asked, “Kaiser, can’t we go outside to engage them? Don’t we have more numbers than three thousand?”

Kaiser shook his head. He said while holding his chin, “That’s just on the surface. We don’t have many Knights; only 500. The Magicians also lacked combat experience, and the 900 Sorcerers with special abilities don’t specialize in attack magic. The Dragon Emperor on the other hand, has three thousand Knights molded by battle, with two hundred being Gold Knights. No one even knows how many years those people trained in the Dragon Empire.”

“If there were enough Knights to protect the Magicians while they come out of the base, then they could just activate one large-scale magic, then it would be great. We just need to cast it once, and we can bomb those Knights all the way back to the Dragon Empire! The magic circles my grandpa researched aren’t just for show!”

“Aiya! Too bad I can’t possibly put the Knights and Magicians outside.” Kaiser began to pull his hair wildly, “The moment they go out, they might end up being screwed by those Ice or Earth Dragons, burnt by the Fire Dragons, and then blown to the edges of the world by the Wind Dragons!”

“Don’t worry, Kaiser. We have our own advantages.” Daylight advised warmly, “We have the base Qiusi carefully prepared. There are all sorts of resources stockpiled here, and we have so many Magicians that they can’t possibly break the shields.”

“Well, that is true. That guy Qiusi acted like he knew this was coming all along. He had already moved the resources from the city… By the looks of it, most of them were moved here. Even the capital of Aklan was practically an empty city.” Kaiser said as he held his chin.

“In fact, this war doesn’t even seem to be fought by us, but by the Dragon Emperor and Qiusi instead.” Kaiser stared at the screen, “The Dragon Emperor favors attack, Qiusi favors defense, and even that didn’t change here.”

Kaiser frowned, and looked at the little black dot on the monitor that had been constantly flying above the base, “What worries me more is Mizerui. He is now certainly under the Dragon Emperor’s control, and ever since the start of this fight, he had been locking down this base for the past few days. I don’t think he rested at all either.”

Kaiser frowned, and murmured, “No matter how strong a Magician is, he can’t possibly do this! He will eventually exhaust all his power. Does the Dragon Emperor intend to kill Mizerui via exhaustion?”

“The Dragon Emperor isn’t trying to kill Mizerui like that, right?” Daylight’s face suddenly turned slightly pale. Mizerui had helped them several times before, and he didn’t want to see him dying like this.

“I hope… not?”

Kaiser was a bit hesitant. Logically, Mizerui was a very powerful Magician, and the Dragon Emperor had no reason to kill him like this. Instead, he could use Mizerui to the fullest potential. Nevertheless, the whole attack on the base was actually kind of strange. Kaiser wondered how the Dragon Emperor was able to explain to these Knights? Could he have said this base was the spies’ base?

A thought suddenly crossed Kaiser’s mind, and even he himself thought it was ridiculous. Nevertheless, he asked, “Could the Dragon Emperor have gone crazy?”

“What do you mean?” Daylight didn’t seem to understand.

“No, it’s fine, I was just talking nonsense.” Kaiser shrugged. ‘It can’t be, right? That’s the Dragon Emperor… no, that’s actually the Heart of the Dragon Emperor, a monster that survived for thousands of years. How could it have gone crazy?’

However, as if the heavens was trying to tell Kaiser his guess was correct, the situation suddenly changed: the earth began to quake, the dust began to fly, and they saw something resembling a small mountain moving towards them quickly.

“Cameras, move closer! Hurry and capture that thing!” Kaiser yelled loudly, and the controlling Knights quickly moved the camera towards the unidentified object.

It was a wave of Lesser-Dragons, large enough to cover the entire ground. The small hill among them was the Dragon with the largest body mass — Black Dragon King, Miluo! The direction they were charging in was clearly towards the base.

Kaiser and Daylight were both confused. What’s the situation now?

“What exactly is this?”

Kaiser let his weight dropped onto the chair, and chaos filled his mind. ‘Were the Lesser-Dragons here to attack them or the Dragon Emperor? God! Nevermind that, they can’t possibly here to attack the Dragon Emperor! Unless the Dragon Emperor wanted Miluo to act as if he was here to save the base? That is quite possible.’

“K-Kaiser…” Daylight yelled with a stutter.

“What?” Kaiser raised his head impatiently, annoyed that Daylight didn’t see he was trying to figure out what the Dragon Emperor was up to.

“The black ball in Miluo’s mouth… it’s huge!” Even Daylight didn’t know what he was saying anymore. However, he felt suffocated seeing the black ball, to the point where he could barely speak.

“What?” Kaiser looked towards the monitor. The mountain-like Miluo had already stopped, and a ball shaped object was materializing in his mouth. It was darker than a moonless night, and more imposing to their hearts than any nightmare. It was as if anyone who had seen it had witness destruction itself.

“Magicians!” Kaiser grabbed ahold of the broadcaster, “All Magicians, attention! Use all your powers to maintain the shield, this is an emergency! I repeat! Aiya, I hate talking like this. All you damn Magicians put your powers into the shield. There is one big ass spell heading our way! Use all your power to maintain the shield if you want to live!”

The people in the base immediately began to move. The Magicians all fumbled around as they ran towards the power transfer device to the shield.

The black ball became bigger and bigger, and it felt as though the surrounding air had been sucked into it, making it difficult for people to breathe. Kaiser knew very well it wasn’t actually the case. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath before he said, “Just maintain the shield for now, and wait for my mark, then raise the strength of the shield to the max!”

“Kaiser…” With a pale face, Daylight’s forehead was now covered in cold sweat. He didn’t even try to hide his fear, “Are all large-scale Magic this terrifying?”

Kaiser shook his head, “No, this magic… this magic… might be the last move Miluo can make.”

“Last move?” Daylight asked with confusion.

Kaiser smiled helplessly, “Also known as ‘perish together’ move, do you understand now? A magic like this is unfathomably powerful. So after casting, even if the enemy dies, the caster would die from exhaustion.”

“Does that mean Miluo will die?” Daylight was shocked.

“Why don’t you worry about whether we would die first?”

Kaiser’s face looked complicated. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Miluo, but it was more important to him to preserve the base. Out of the Magicians present, the ones who specialize in protective shield was far and few inbetween. If Qiusi had been here today, Kaiser might not be so worried. But now, they had to rely on the energy transfer apparatus to maintain the shield, and they would have to use an unimaginable amount of Magic to stop this spell… Could the apparatus hold up?

“Daylight, maybe you better… go tell the Knights to prepare for an upfront battle.” Kaiser said bitterly. Though saying this diminished his prestige, but living was more important to him than saving face.

Daylight nodded. Truth was, all the Knights had been preparing at their stations, so there was nothing for Daylight to tell them. Nevertheless, he still walked out of the command room, planning on fighting with these Knights.

Kaiser looked towards Miluo again, and saw that the black ball in its mouth doubled in size. He couldn’t help but feel sadness for the Black Dragon King. His last move wasn’t actually used towards his enemy, but instead being used by his enemy towards his allies. Luckily his child, Baolilong, wasn’t here. Otherwise, using this last move on his child would be nothing but tragic.

“What the hell is the Dragon Emperor doing by sending Miluo to attack us? Isn’t he afraid the Knights might find out his true intent? Unless… this is his way of having a showdown?” Kaiser gulped. Being enemies with a Dragon Emperor who had lost it wasn’t exactly something he found interesting.

After thinking for a while… Kaiser decided not to think about it anymore, and it was more important for him to stare at the ball coming from Miluo. Suddenly, the black ball stagnated. He knew the destructive Magic was about to activated, and whether they could fend of this attack would depend on… a mere energy transfer apparatus. It was quite a worrisome situation!

Kaiser took a deep breath. The black ball started moving!

“Now! Transfer all your Magic!”

The Magicians wouldn’t dare to hold back. They sent their Magic power towards the shield. Despite no one holding back, the transfer device had trouble handling such energy, and red lights began to blink everywhere. The strength of the shield, luckily, increased to its maximum in an instant. By now, the black ball suddenly bursted. The sphere suddenly turned into a black line drawn across the sky, and shot directly towards to the shield.

In an instant, contact was made.

The powerful collision made the entire base shake. Everyone inside had a heavy look on their faces. The Knights had to put their faith in the Magicians, but there was little more the Magicians could do: no matter how much Magic power they had, the shield’s transfer device was already at its limit. If they were to send any more power through it, it might end up exploding.

The black ray slowly pushed forward, and web-like cracks began to be seen from the shield. Judging from the situation, it was a matter of time the black ray would emerge victorious, assuming nothing else happened.

Seeing the cracks enlarging, Kaiser’s face sunk further and further. When he heard a cracking sound from the monitor, he yelled into the broadcaster, “Send all your Magic in, who the hell cares! Send it all!”

With such a direct command, the Magicians immediately began to transfer more Magic without any hesitation. The meter measuring the strength of the shield did indeed explode. The Magicians were initially surprised, but resumed to transferring after hearing Kaiser’s yells of “Send it, use all your power, quick~~” echoing within the base…

The Magicians held back their tears, and continued to transfer magic into the Maxun despite the sounds of explosions and presence of fires around them. The Knights, on the other hand, were trying to hold back themselves from trying to escape, seeing how the base looked like it would implode at any given moment, and held their positions. Of course, some of them murmured prayers to their deities.

‘It’s almost over, just a bit more.’ Kaiser’s face was pale, and he grabbed the mic to the broadcaster system tightly, with his eyes firmly fixed on the screens, it started to filled with the cracking shield and shrinking ray. The two seemed to be in a match of endurance; whichever one to disappear first, would be the loser.

‘We won’t lose!’ Kaiser held his fist tightly.

The protective shield made even more cracking noise. ‘Hold on, just a bit more.’

Suddenly, an entire piece of the protective shield cracked, and disappeared completely. The black ray in that region poured straight through, landing directly on the outer hull of the base. The sounds of painful moans could be heard from the base. Though the ceiling of the base had not been completely breached, but there were countless cracks. The cracks extended and widened throughout the entire base, and the expansion of the cracks were accompanied by screams of fear.

The Knights organized their thoughts, trying hard not to show any signs of fear.

Kaiser put his hands together, still staring at the shield and the black ray… ‘Just a bit more! A bit more would do. The ray is almost gone!’

In that moment, after a loud noise, the protective shield was now completely gone. However, the black ray had not completely dissipated. Without the protective shield stopping it, this black destructive ray shot into the base…

“Crap!” Kaiser yelled loudly, “Find cover!”

It was as though the world was ending. Loud collapsing noises came from everywhere in the base. The rocks and metals that were once a part of the building were now falling. The Knights had to dodge every which way. Some of them couldn’t even dodge it, so they had to use their Auras to stop them.

Despite being a dozen or so seconds long, the pain of enduring through such explosions seemed like an eternity to the people inside. After the explosions stopped, everyone came out staring at one another from the places where they had been hiding.

In the command room, Kaiser peeked out his head from underneath the table. After observing his surroundings and seeing there were no more objects flying around, he finally climbed out. After looking around, quite a few of the monitors had broken, but there were still a dozen or so of them that continued functioning. He murmured, almost unbelievably, “We… survived! The base is… still not completely destroyed!”

Everyone froze as they listened to Kaiser’s broadcast. When they realized they were still alive, they began cheering, to the point of hugging one another!

“What are you so happy about?! Our shield is gone! And there are still three thousand Knights outside watching all this.” Kaiser snapped, then proceed to rub salt in everyone’s wounds.

Daylight pushed open the door of the command room. Kaiser looked at Daylight with confusion, unsure of what he wanted to do. Daylight pointed at himself, then at the broadcaster, with a warm and determined smile on his face. Naturally, Kaiser took a step back to let Daylight use the broadcaster.

“Honorable Knights,” Daylight spoke with the firm tone he always had.

“We have been staying in the shield for a while now, letting others protect us, but this isn’t what Knights should do.”

“The duties of a Knight is not to hide behind others. The true Knights are the barricade to our enemies. Using our bodies to stop them, and our weapons to maintain justice. We are—” Daylight closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and this anticipation went into the heart of every Knight.

His eyes suddenly opened, and his golden eyes were full of spirits. Daylight said with a deep voice, “KNIGHTS!”

“Knight”, this word echoed encouragement into the heart of every Knight.

Kaiser cracked a smile. He had never heard Daylight talk like this. He also knew, Daylight would never say things pleasant only to the ear. All he did was say his true beliefs. Therefore, it seemed far more convincing.

Kaiser grabbed ahold of the broadcaster, then said unreservedly, “All right, all Magicians, now we have Knights before us, it would be unreasonable for us to be lazy! Go find your Knight team mate and hold your stations. Better be smart about it, a hard fight is about to begin!”

Daylight looked at Kaiser, then asked, “Kaiser, which side will you be fighting on?”

Kaiser shrugged, “Right here. Since the Dragon Emperor asked Miluo to send us such a huge gift, we can’t possibly not return an equally big one!”

Daylight looked at Kaiser, waiting for his explanation.

“I plan on using a large scale Magic to deal with the Lesser-Dragons. They stand closely together, and the Black Dragon King probably also doesn’t have the power to command them now and avoid danger. A few spells should be enough to take out 70-80 percent of them.” Kaiser showed a sinister smile.

Daylight nodded, and said, “I’ll protect you. Now that we don’t have a protective shield, I’m worried someone might charge in here.”

Kaiser grunted, and didn’t say anything to thank him. He knew he didn’t need to thank him. As a companion and Knight, Daylight would undoubtedly keep him out of harm’s way.

The three thousand Dragon Emperor’s Knight charged. On the side of Aklan, they were grouped into teams of two Magicians and one Knight, spread out across the base for defense. After being taught by Daylight’s lectures, every Knight straightened their backs, using their Aura and body to protect the physically weak Magicians behind them.

Neither the horrific scene of three thousand Knights charging up nor the fact that they were outnumbered six to one seem to phase these Knights to hold off the first wave of attack. Compared to the confusion the Dragon Emperor’s Knights were facing, unsure of why they were fighting, the Aklan Knights were fully determined. They were Knights trained by Gladiolus, who never hid anything from them, including the danger of their mission. Those who were unwilling to come were allowed to be put under an amnesia spell and then leave.

Compared to the attacking Knights who were simply obeying the Dragon Emperor’s orders without reason, the Aklan Knights knew full well they were protecting Aklan, their country.

Two different attitudes resulted in the two atmospheres being completely different. Even the Dragon Empire’s Knights admired the burning flames in their enemies’ eyes.

The Knights were responsible for holding off the attack, and the Magicians would obviously not sit still. When the Knights stop the attack, the Magicians had their spells prepared. Standing on either side of the Knight, the two Magicians would cooperate with one another with their spells: one of them would cast ice bolts with high piercing property, forcing the Knights to use their swords to cut the countless ice bolts, while the other Magician would use a lightning spell, filling the air and the ice bolts with electricity so that when the Knights block or knock them away, they would be shocked to the point of almost dropping their swords.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion coming from behind them. The Knights who had the chance to turn their heads did, but the scene froze them. The images going into their eyes looked like those who has seen at the end of the world. A fissure was on the ground, and out of it came countless flames. The Lesser-Dragons had no power to defend themselves. They either fell into the fissure, or caught by the fire and ended up being in a fireball. They roared in pain and bashed their heads against every which way, and the number of Lesser-Dragons caught on fire were countless. In that instant, the whole place looked like it was hell.

“Doomsday Flames, one of my crazy grandfather’s inventions.”

Kaiser gave out an evil laugh from within the secret base.

“The Dragon Emperor’s Knights are next, and I have just the move for them.” Cruelty flashed across Kaiser’s eyes.

“Kaiser?!”

Seeing what happened with the Lesser-Dragons, Daylight already felt condolences for the Lesser-Dragons. Now that he heard Kaiser planned to use this move on the Knights, he was extremely shocked.

“Stop nagging! Shut your mouth if you don’t want to lose.” Kaiser roared, interrupting Daylight’s attempt to stop him. He had spent quite a while to make up his mind to use this move, and this was the only move that could leave them victorious, so he had to use it no matter what, even if it means his hands would be stained with blood… He didn’t care. War was always going to result in blood!

Daylight paused, but he still felt it wasn’t right. But, as Kaiser had said, if he could use large-scale Magic like he did before, they would decrease the number of enemies drastically. However… they were Knights, too, but simply under the Dragon Emperor’s orders to attack their enemies. Would they really deserve to die because of it?

Kaiser closed his eyes. Such a large-scale Magic was very taxing, and if it fails, he might not have enough power to cast it again. In fact, the previous Doomsday Flames had already cost him significant mana, and it would affect the power of the spell he was about to cast.

If that were the case, why would he cast a Doomsday Flames, just to take out of the relatively harmless Lesser-Dragons?

Kaiser shook his head, trying to shake away any thoughts of weakness, and concentrated his thoughts on Magic. He began to murmur Magic incantations, but in his mind, countless images of Magic tearing apart a human body flew across; blood, tissues… ‘Damn! Calm down, if you don’t concentrate on casting the Magic, then the people getting destroyed won’t be the enemies, but instead our own.’

“Kaiser…”

Seeing Kaiser’s obvious restlessness, Daylight frowned and didn’t know what he should do. As a companion, he didn’t wish to see Kaiser’s bloodlust side. He believed Kaiser did not want to kill any more than he did, but they had no choice.

Daylight looked towards the screen, at the images of everyone killing one another, and he could vaguely tell neither side wanted to kill one another; especially the Dragon Empire Knights, who didn’t even know why they were fighting, so they did not really want to kill.

‘Why? Everyone obviously did not want to kill one another, so why force themselves to kill?’

‘Is there any way to avoid such meanless war?’

Daylight stared at the screen, trying to find any possibility to avoid killing. Suddenly, a group of small black dots appeared in the sky on the monitor, and they were gradually becoming bigger — obviously something flying towards them. Daylight thought it was strange, and concentrated on watching them…

“That’s…?”

Daylight’s jaws dropped. In the lead of those dots, he saw someone he never thought he would see!

‘Is that him? Is that him?’ Daylight practically had his face against the monitor. Suddenly, the screen changed, and a pair of zoomed-in silver eyes startled Daylight, which made him jump back a few steps before he actually focused his eyes on this person.

“Uhm… I saw you were looking at this screen, so I zoomed in.” The Knights controlling the monitor quickly explained. He didn’t think Daylight would be so surprised.

“No… No! It’s fine, I mean, thank you for zooming in!”

Daylight was so excited he could not even speak the proper words. It was him, he was here!

Right, he still had to stop Kaiser. Daylight panicked, and he quickly slapped his hand towards the back of Kaiser’s head.

Bam!

“Do you want to die…”

Kaiser was glued face-first onto the floor, and a dull voice could be heard from the floor.

“No! Kaiser, look! Look!” Daylight was so happy that he did not care what Kaiser said. He grabbed onto Kaiser’s collar, and pulled him up like a little kitten.

Kaiser was now hanging in the air with his feet off the floor. Veins were popped on his forehead. If Daylight had not provided an explanation for his actions, Kaiser might have very well throw the incomplete spell towards Daylight’s head!

However, there was no need for Daylight to explain, because the explanation already appeared on the screen.